GOP race lacking presidential potential

By Mary Whitfill Features Editor The Republican Presidential Primaries are shaping up to be more entertaining than most MTV reality TV shows. The debates have become so popular that, according to The New York Times, news outlets are scrambling to add even more. Not counting the Herman Cain and New Gingich sit-downs or the individualized radio and TV interviews with each candidate, we have been through 10 debates – with 10 more scheduled. So far, the debates have produced surprisingly large audiences, fun news cycles and democracy as reality TV. The first GOP debate, hosted by Fox News drew the largest audience. Over 6.2 million people tuned in to watch the candidates battle it out…

Fine arts students prepare to compete in national competition

Mary Whitfill Features Editor Coppell High School sophomore Alex Smith will be competing the National Forensics League (NFL) competition this summer, representing Coppell ISD in the Oral Interpretation category. Performing “The Cult” by John Stewart, Smith is the only CHS student competing in the category. In order to qualify to participate in the tournament, students had to not only be registered members of the Speech & Debate Honor Society, but they had to place in the top two at their district competition. “It is very difficult to qualify for nationals as a sophomore,” CHS speech teacher Maleda Kunkle said. “He just started in the fall, but he has been to most of our tournaments and…

The Coppell Cowboy Classic to take place this weekend

Julia Kim Staff Writer On Jan. 7 and 8, the Coppell High School Speech and Debate Team will host the Coppell Cowboy Classic, Coppell’s 11th annual TFA qualifying tournament. The tournament begins this Friday with registration in the library starting at 2:30 p.m. Debate Round 1 starts at 4:15 p.m. while the Congressional Debate lasts three hours from 4:30 to 7:30. The evening will close with Debate Rounds 2 and 3 at 6:00 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. respectively. On Saturday, a multitude of events will take place beginning with the Extemp Draw at 8 a.m. and closing with the awards ceremony that night at 8 p.m. The Coppell High School National Honor Society will help…

CHS debate team hosts fundraiser at Fat Daddy’s and Cici’s

By Henna Khan Staff Writer/ Photographer Fundraising is an essential part of any extra curricular activity. The Coppell High School debate team has initated several attempts to make money for their account. We started selling snow cones at the beginning of the year, but as winter approached, snow cones were not feasible anymore. On April 10, we hosted a garage sale where all of us took shifts selling items donated from community members. Needless to say, the garage sale was a brilliant idea, as we closed off the Saturday afternoon with over $600, enough to pay for nationals. Last night we hosted another fundraiser at Fat Daddy’s. If you placed your receipt in the box…

Debate garage sale this Saturday

by Melissa Brisco Staff Writer Saturday April 10, the CHS Debate Team will hold a Garage Sale to help send Priyanka Krishnamurthy, Joey Donaghy, Sarah Mithani and Sonali Kalvala to Tournament of Champions. The garage sale will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will be held in the Coppell High School parking lot. Money raised from the garage sale will go help pay to send Krishnamurthy, Donaghy, Kalvala and Mithani to Kentucky for the Tournament of Champions. To read about how the debate team advanced to State, click here.

Wheels on the bus go round, as budget stretches thin

Rebecca Neumann Staff Writer With all of the fun activities clubs and organizations at CHS get to do, the price of traveling can be the biggest challenge for these groups. Some may be surprised that some organizations are limited to the number of competitions they can compete in because of the price of buses. CHS rents buses exclusively from Dallas County Transportation at the rate of $40 per hour. According to its official Web site, Dallas County Transportation is one of the largest fleets of school buses in the United States with about 1,700 buses. Dallas County Schools provide 10 different districts with buses, including Dallas ISD and Irving ISD as well as Coppell ISD….

CHS goes Classic with Coppell speech, debate

It’s that time of year again, CHS. No, not quite the time for stressing over finals, but for CHS to host the annual Coppell Classic Speech and Debate Tournament beginning this Friday Jan. 8. Prepping for the arrival of other schools, Coppell’s ”Interpers” and “Debaters” have spent the last couple of days getting last minute details and preparations sorted out. Although our speech and debate students won’t be competing in this weekend’s tournament, they’ll be making sure everything runs smoothly and accordingly. Make sure you wish these students good luck, CHS, as participants of the Coppell Classic Tournament will be wearing they’re event shirts this Friday.

Debate and Speech make NFL “100 Club”

The Coppell Speech and Debate program has been placed in the prestigious “100 Club” by the National Forensic League for achieving 100 or more degrees last year.  The program has now been placed in top 10% of NFL chapters nationwide. Degrees serve as points for individual participants in the program.  To earn degrees, the participants must first become members of the NFL by earning 25 points which are essentially the same as degrees.  The participants are rewarded points or degrees for achieving certain things, for instance three points are awarded for losing a tournament where as six points are awarded for winning. Here’s a link to the NFL official page: http://www.nflonline.org/Main/HomePage

Coppell Debate takes 9th at tourney

By Michael Pankonien Staff Writer Coppell Debate recentlycompeted in two tournaments in the beginning of the week.  Coppell sent teams to the Public Forum event at Greenhill and the Policy events at South Lake Carroll. “Public forum is usually slower, more persuasive, and judged by lay people of the sport,” debate coach Glenda Ferguson said. “Policy is faster, more technical, and judged by actual trained judges.” At the Greenhill tournament, Joey Donaghy and Priyanka Krishnamurthy placed 9th out of 101 teams in the policy event. Farah Mathani and Hena Khan reached quarter finals at the South Lake Carroll meet out of 36 other teams. Correction: The Coppell Policy debate team competed at Greenhill, and the…